The distance between Amara Darboh's past and his future was only two steps.

Sitting in the second row on the aisle at United States District Court in Detroit this morning, the Michigan football player heard the words for which he has waited nearly 14 years.

"Amara Darboh, Sierra Leone."

With that, he rose, took those steps and received his certificate of naturalization, becoming a United States citizen.

Wearing a black suit, black tie with a clip and red shirt, he held a small American flag in his hand, grinning for a photo. Then he returned to his seat, thoughts filling his head.

"Grateful, just grateful," Darboh, a 21-year-old wide receiver, told the Free Press. "Grateful for where I came from. How grateful my family was."

The naturalization ceremony was for fewer than 100 people from at least 17 countries, but the room was bursting with nearly 200, with friends and family of all ages.

From the smallest children, wailing in strollers, to 99-year-old Asho Shamoon, it was a life-changing ceremony that lasted just over a half-hour.

Darboh arrived with U-M photographer David Turnley who is documenting the football program this year, and Zach Eisendrath, Michigan football's director of internal communications and operations for the head coach.

The trio arrived around 10 a.m. for the 10:30 ceremony, securing prime seats in front of the podium where Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford swore them in.

Darboh's journey from war-torn Sierra Leone began when he was 2 or 3, with his family leaving for Gambia. He and his sister, brothers and mother worked their way to Iowa by the time he was 7 years old.

The Schaefer family in Des Moines took him in as a sixth-grader and Darboh's life has been full of promise ever since.

"Growing up, I have considered myself an American, and this was the final step," Darboh said.

He tried for citizenship before, late in high school, but in moving to Ann Arbor, the paperwork was lost.

Four years later, he had a certificate with his name, his face and a seal proving this is his home.

Though Darboh is well on his way to his Michigan degree in his fourth year, the test he took Monday in Detroit, paving the way for today's ceremony, had as much impact on his life as any classroom at U-M. Applicants are given a list of 100 questions to study; 10 will be chosen and administered as part of the test. They are allowed to miss no more than four to be accepted as a citizen.

Darboh hit on his, from who is third in line for the presidency to what body makes federal laws and who are the local senators and representatives. Dan Schaefer, whom Darboh considers like a father, helped him with the process.

Stafford had the soon-to-be citizens stand for the national anthem played from her cellphone -- a Whitney Houston rendition -- before explaining to the applicants their privilege.

They were taking a major step, leaving the country of their birth to become an American citizen.

"I believe you're gaining something precious and valuable," Stafford said. "The freedom to participate in the democratic process is not just a right, it's your obligation."

The oath followed, with dozens of right hands aloft, committed to support and defend the United States Constitution and laws and to perform in combat, if required by law.

"I take this obligation freely and without mental reservation," they concluded. "So help me God."

One by one, the certificates followed, each individual called by name and country, from Iraq and the Philippines, Albania and Mexico, Germany, India, Canada, Jamaica, Italy, Ukraine, Ghana, Jordan, Romania, Cameroon, Brazil and … Sierra Leone.

Despite the pomp and circumstance, Darboh said afterward, "I feel the same." For 14 years, he has felt like an American. Now, legally, he was one.

And his favorite new freedom?

"To vote."

As he embraced America, he said good-bye to the country of his birth. But even the ceremony couldn't take it all. "Sierra Leone will always be in my heart."